Mary Taylor says Nathan Estruth checked all the boxes as she searched for a running mate to take over her job as lieutenant governor.

Taylor rounded out her Republican gubernatorial ticket on early Wednesday afternoon by formally announcing her selection of long-time Cincinnati-area business executive Nathan Estruth.

Estruth's selection "draws a clear line in the sand between the old guard, establishment pairing of career politicians like Mike DeWine and Jon Husted and our ticket of conservative outsiders," Taylor said in prepared remarks.

Estruth, 50, retired Wednesday from his job as chief executive officer of Hamilton-based iMFLUX, a Hamilton injection molding company and subsidiary of consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, to join the Taylor ticket. He previously served for more than a decade as a vice-president for P&G's FutureWorks division.

The No. 2 to term-limited Gov. John Kasich said Estruth met her call for a running mate "with a history of fighting for conservative principles" and private-sector business experience. Estruth also can function as chief operating officer to her CEO role, Taylor said.

"And most important, someone that will be a brave servant. A servant-leader who is willing to step forward and fight for us all," she said in her remarks at City Gospel Mission in Cincinnati.

The new team is opposing the gubernatorial tickets of Attorney General DeWine and Secretary of State Husted and U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, of Wadsworth, and Cincinnati City Council Member Amy Murray in the May 8 GOP primary.

Estruth praised Taylor's experience, and results, as a certified public accountant, state auditor, state insurance director and as lieutenant governor, particularly in downsizing or eliminating 7,000 business regulations through the Common Sense Initiative she directs.

"She understands that Ohio, at the end of the day, needs more liberty and less government and she has advanced that tirelessly," he said. "Mary Taylor brings integrity to a political swamp that desperately needs it — and fears it."

Ensruth said he and Taylor are best positioned to "defend our values in November." Taylor repeated her pledge to end the expansion of Medicaid to the working poor as financially unsustainable, to work to end the remnants of Obamacare and to eliminate Common Core education standards.

Estruth, a former board member of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative nonprofit that defends Christian values in court, also importantly is opposed to abortion and supportive of gun rights, Taylor said.

He cut his political teeth as an intern on Capitol Hill and in the Ronald Reagan White House and briefly worked in the speechwriting office of then Housing and Urban Development Director Jack Kemp. Estruth also has worked on the campaigns of J. Kenneth Blackwell, a former secretary of state and losing Republican candidate for governor in 2006 to Democrat Ted Strickland.